Since the whole point of us Sabbs having a presence on the front page of UPSU.net is to let the students of Portsmouth know what we're up to, this is a (slightly edited) version of the report us Sabbs present to the Board of Trustees meeting, which takes place monthly at the Union and is used as a way of us all reporting on what's happening with the Union.

Although I'm sure not even the terminally bored would want to read this, here it is anyway. Enjoy! ;o) 

August report – Alex Harries, Media & Publications Orifice

My first three weeks in office have been a very busy period of work, with a lot of travelling around on training and our Sabbatical “tour”, and accompanied by an inevitably steep learning curve.

This month’s highlights include…

• Sabb tour: I think the whole team gained a good deal of insight into the workings of the differing ways in which Students’ Unions have to prioritise their resources and efforts as we visited Liverpool, Sheffield and Birmingham SUs. To this end, I believe the UPSU is very fortunate in a number of respects in terms of its successes and strengths as a Students’ Union,
• Communication in Action training: this was a good opportunity for me to learn some of the key aspects of my role as a communications officer, and to gain an insight into various methods of prioritising and focusing my workload. The course also gave me another opportunity to examine how other Students’ Unions various media operations have taken shape, and the reasons for their development, helping me to develop a clearer understanding of the UPSU’s media position and its relative strengths and weaknesses,
• LGBT society: I have been working closely with the Union’s LGBT society to determine whether our website can offer them the feature set they require in order to communicate with their members, and to allow them to provide an appropriate online web presence,
• Pure:FM society: the Union’s student radio society are in the process of re-branding, involving a change of logo and online presentation. I have been focusing on working as closely with them as possible to ensure their work is completed on time in order for them to be a fully-functioning arm of UPSU Media in time for the start of the year,
• UPSU.net: I have spent some time this month further developing the Union’s website presence, with major updates to a number of pages including the Get Involved and sports clubs homepages in order to provide a clearer and better-advertised service in these areas. I hope to be able to continue this hard work in time for the Union’s major areas to be highly presentable and content-rich in time for the start of our Freshers’ marketing phase, beginning around mid-September,
• Media Executive: discussions have taken place with the Sabbatical team and trustees about the benefits and need for a Media Executive to lend direction and guidance to the Union’s media presence. Having discussed this at length, I am confident that the introduction of a Media Exec can bring a powerful and tangible benefit to the Students’ Union’s presence both on campus and to wider audiences, and will be working hard to realise the exec committee as early within the academic year as possible,
• News: I have also spent some time on finding ways in which students and staff (at the Union and University) alike can quickly and easily submit news to the Union, to allow a greater focus on news-led media to develop at the Union. We can now boast a very simple news system which allows even the least experienced members of the Union’s contributors to create news articles on the UPSU.net website to a presentable standard, and will be creating documentation and publicising this system further during the run-up to the start of the academic year,
• Media Review: the often-spoken about Media Review pr...
  
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(I wrote this last Friday, but I've only just managed to get this approved by the powers that be, so this entry's a bit late. Sorry!) 

Today's been my first day of doing Sabb-like things, although at the moment I think most, if not all of the incoming Sabbs are feeling a bit disconnected from reality as the reality of the position's responsibilities probably haven't quite kicked in just yet. It'll come with time though, I'm sure.

As part of our (gentle, at the moment) introduction, we sat in on the Board of Trustees' meeting today with the University Chaplain, Peter Jones, the Union's accountant bod, the current Sabb team, the two student trustees, Rena Ellis (the Union's Chief Exec), Jo Bower (Rena's secretary), and Tracey Anderson (the Financial Controller, aka Big Chief Bean-counter).

As a Trustee of the Union charity, it's each person's responsibility to run the business - much like a company director - in the spirit of the business. Because it's a charity, this means we have to make sure the Union is working towards its aims, which are basically to provide a range of support and opportunities for students (it's a lot more detailed than that, but I can't remember the aims, and since it's just gone 3am and I have an episode of Lost to watch, I'm sure you won't mind that I won't be looking them up just now...).

While the contents of the meeting aren't something I can discuss (on pain of death, so I'm told), Yorkie's Lux proposal got a mention and I have to admit I'm hoping that it will mature into a committed dialogue between the Union and the University to make the most of the Union's "fridge-with-a-light-on".

Personally, I suspect (ok, I hope) it might not take a lot more than some good "artist's impressions", and a well-thought-out assessment of what can be achieved for the money, to provide the University with a workable plan to create a truly multi-purpose venue. I don't think that our pedigree sound system and lighting rig (possibly the best in Pompey) should be the only highlights of the venue I can think of. Time, and a lot of work, will tell...

This evening, I attended the Pure:FM AGM. Blessed with possibly the largest committee in the world, the voting side of things took up most of the event's two-hours, with an awards ceremony - which ranged from the silly ("Worst mispronunciation of a performer's name" award) to the coveted ("Best show" award) - providing some expected and not-so-expected-but-still-rather-nice results for the night.

I can't remember everyone who was elected, so instead of upsetting any more Pure members than I already have tonight, I'll just say I am genuinely looking forward to working with them all next year. Pure can look forward to a strongly-led, experienced group of people with a wide range of talents, skills and knowledge running their show, and - but don't tell anyone - I've almost got the warm fuzzies about what I think they'll achieve if they keep the hard work up.

That's not to say I don't for a second doubt they will do their best to make my life a living hell, because I wouldn't have it any other way, and no doubt they will soon become sick of me thinking I know more about radio than I do - truth be told I would probably have difficulty identifying the business end of a microphone without some help... ;o), but I do hope that whatever happens, the next 15 months give Pure:FM plenty more achievements to be proud of, starting with the Societies' Carnival on May 11th (make sure you go - it's going to be great!!).

Ooh, one last ...